Prairie Fabrics

As a town developed and new businesses came to town the variety of consumer goods increased. A newly developed town may start with a “General Store” that carried a little bit of everything, but as new businesses opened their doors some of those items would shift to a special merchant. Fabric and feed are two good examples of those items.

Fabric was precious and necessary for clothing. Every day clothes, special occasion clothes, and fabric for furniture, curtains, and towels were required. A lady may come to the fabric shop to buy yardage for dresses for her daughters, or shirts for her husband and sons, that she would later sew herself. She may also pick up all the required items that would go along with that task, such as thread, binding and needles. She may have also taken some fabric to the dressmaker and request an outfit be made from it, depending on what was needed.